


Marinette, the Normal Girl with a Normal Life

by agreste_cheng



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Baking, Everyday, F/M, Gen, School Life, fashion - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-02 01:11:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19188874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agreste_cheng/pseuds/agreste_cheng
Summary: Marinette Dupain-Cheng has a secret-- she's superhero Ladybug and is here to save Paris from the evil Hawkmoth with Chat Noir and other superhero friends! While her escapades saving Paris are marvelous, who is Marinette when she's NOT chasing villains? Marinette proclaims herself an ordinary girl, but her Miraculous life is anything but!





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A Miraculous Life 

Ever since that fateful day when Master Fu gave me the ladybug miraculous, my life has been incredibly busy! Between saving Paris and trying to maintain my grades, friendships, and interests, it's been really hard! Not only that, but people LOVE Ladybug and Chat Noir-- like, seriously. I never thought of myself as someone in the limelight, or even as someone who'd want that lifestyle, but I guess that's all part of being a superhero, too! I bet Adrien Agreste wouldn't mind all that attention, he's always been all over the media... oh Adrien... maybe Ladybug would... um! But anyways! It's been crazy lately trying to be Ladybug when Paris needs me, but I don't mind my responsibilities at all! It's incredible! But sometimes, being just Marinette is enough for me. 

Not only has Paris paid more attention to Ladybug than Marinette Dupain-Cheng, but I'm starting to notice that I have, too! I wanna help as much as I can, but Tikki and I have been talking and she says I don't give myself enough ME time. She's probably right. That's why I've got you, diary, to keep myself on track! I'll log all my days off every week (or at least hours off!) and try to focus on Marinette for a change-- not Ladybug, not Paris, not Hawkmoth.

Until next week!

Marinette Dupain-Cheng


	2. Beta Testing

After FINALLY getting through the busiest couple of weeks EVER, I got the chance to play Max's newest video game. Yeah, yeah, I KNOW I denounced them while I was busy but I couldn't resist it when Max brought it for my parents to test. We played it through together and he took some notes on gameplay, but then the nicest thing happened: he asked me to keep it over the weekend and really dig into the game and write what I thought it needed. ME. I was super hesitant to agree because I wouldn't wanna be too critical of his hard work, but I talked to Alya and she said that it's like a olive branch after all the drama with us and gaming. So this weekend, in between bringing Mr. Ramier back down from some feathery, frantic antics, I played through Max Kanté's beta.

Even though that by itself was GREAT, diary, something AMAZING came from it-- Adrien came over to test it with me!

Friday night, I poured over the game and started testing out the characters. I took all my notes and compiled them neatly for Max (it's such a COOL game! I'll leave my full notes at some point, but let me tell you it's such an awesome concept! Hopefully, with Chat Noir by my side, the game will never need updates, but awesome of Max to be so inspired!). I went to sleep late from having such a good time, camped out in the living room with TIkki after my parents went to bed. We stayed up and talked-- it's so nice to be able to take time to get to know Tikki! She's such a sweetheart!

Then Saturday... oh it was _perfect!_   Well, I mean, at the end it was! I woke up SO late, I planned on getting up around 9am from my parents opening up the bakery, but it turns out they were catering a brunch at City Hall and left early to go set up... which means I only woke up after three missed calls from Alya, going on the fourth. I fumbled the phone from the coffee table and it landed face down on the floor.

"Hello?? Girl, what are you DOING?"

"What do you MEAN?" I picked up the phone and blinked at her. "Oh my god, school!" I fell out of the couch with a  _thud_ and looked around for my bookbag.

"No, girl, ugh, it's Saturday!!"

I stopped halfway through the doorway and went back to my phone, picking it up again from the rug. "It's Saturday?? Then what did I miss? Is something due today? Did we make plans?"

"Well,  _we_ didn't, but, um,  _I_ made plans  _for_ you..." Alya went on to explain that Adrien was talking to Nino that morning about finally having some time to play Max's game, which Nino relayed to Max. Max said that I had it, but told Adrien he could try it out if I was done. Nino told Alya before he said anything to Adrien, and Alya told him that I said he could come over and play. So Alya had tried to call me to warn me he snuck out of home and was on his way over, but since I didn't answer, she told Adrien it was okay because she knew I'd hate to have missed his company.

"When did you tell him to come by?" I started to feel the panic, hot in my face.

"10:45..." Alya's voice trailed.

I checked my phone. "It's 11 NOW!" I started running out of the room again.

"Thank me later, girl, but I hope you're heading  _upstairs_ before you grab the door. Have fun!" the phone clicked.

I was trying to figure out why I was supposed to go upstairs while I opened the door. And there he was.

Diary, I WISH you had eyes to see him. He's just so... dreamy... and, WOW, you know? And his hair is so... and those eyes... ugh.

He blinked at me while I thought all that.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Hi, oh no you must have been waiting FOREVER I didn't know, well I DO KNOW but I didn't get the house ready and I-" I looked down at my clothes. THAT'S what Alya meant. "Oh my gosh I didn't get ready! I mean I was gonna but it was a misunderstanding and I thought I would be up but you see my parents were gonna be up but it turns out that they-"

"Hey Marinette, can I come in?" He smiled and tilted his head, his beautiful blonde locks swaying to the side. "I know it was all short notice. If it's a bad time I can go-"

"Oh, no, no, it's no trouble! See I was just going to go up and-"

"Okay, as long as I'm not intruding, but I REALLY should come inside. I don't wanna be seen by anybody. My father thinks I'm practicing piano and I'm not supposed to be out."

"Oh of course! Come in, and excuse me while I tidy up!" I raced to the living room to collect Tikki and grab all the popsicle sticks and soda cans before he saw any of it. "I'll be just a minute!" I called from upstairs before I shut the hatch.

I ran around the room, flying into different clothes and asking Tikki for reassurance. "You'll do fine, Marinette! Just be yourself, and the rest will follow!" 

I came downstairs to find Adrien in the living room, holding the newly framed picture of the family from dad's birthday. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be nosy," he straightened his posture and placed the frame back where it was on the end table. I thought that was weird, diary, because it was such an innocent thing! So I pulled it back down and looked at it myself.

"It's so great that grandpa could make it this year," I started, hoping he wouldn't be embarrassed of looking at the photos.

"He was Bakerix, wasn't he?" That must be why Adrien was curious. It must have been all over the news, and seeing a photo of a guy from the news must be kinda weird.

"Yeah, but thankfully being akumatized led to a revelation in him. He was always," I searched for the words, "old-fashioned."

There was a pause.

"Dupain-dash-Cheng, isn't it?"

"Right," I sought to break the tension. "But things are alright now! Grandpa came for dad's birthday, and he's been WAY more in touch lately. It's cool to hear from him. Anyway, the game, right? You're gonna LOVE it!" I sat up to boot the system, setting the frame down on the coffee table.

For some reason, talking about grandpa with Adrien made me less nervous. It made me see him as more human, more relatable and less of a dream boy who's unattainable. I wonder if he ever sees his grandpa. His father's probably just as distant as grandpa was. 

"I bet it's awesome being able to spend time with your family, Marinette. That's great!" he beamed. Ugh. How simultaneously soul-crushing and heart-warming. 

I loaded the game on the monitor and handed him the controller. "I'll let you take it for a spin before I beat you too harshly," I teased. But to my amazement, he was like a pro! Adrien instantly chose a fighter, Lady Wifi, and beat the NPC playing as Timebreaker. That was SUPER weird, like deja vu. I looked at him appalled because there's NO WAY he's just that good, and NO WAY he played the exact game that Chat did when... I mean it could be a total fluke, that it was the same. It was just so uncanny... and he was just having SO much fun, but it seemed too routine.

"Adrien? How did you know that Lady Wifi would be good against-"

"Oh! I didn't, no, I was just testing out the characters and I think it's really cool that our classmates are in the game, kinda, you know?"

 _Of course._ Seeing all his classmates akumatized must be really crazy, especially since he's not, well, Ladybug.

"Lucky guess!" I laughed, lowering my shoulders and suspicions.

We played back and forth for awhile, eventually testing the versus. We had JUST tied the game up and I SWEAR I was about to win, diary, when my phone buzzed. Just like I told you, Mr. Ramier was having another tough weekend, and the Ladyblog was updating me on it. Thankfully, I downloaded the app like Alya begged so that I knew what was going on while the cable was off. "What's that?" Adrien asked, then retracted "I mean, only if it's like, I mean-"

"No worries!" I called back to him, trying to think of an out. "It's just that the Ladyblog updated. You know, Alya's blog on Ladybug?"

He stood straight up. "Ladybug? Is there trouble?"

"Just Mr. Pigeon. Either way, Adrien, I think I gotta-"

"Oh, look at the time! I'm sure my father's looking for me. Listen, it's been awesome, Marinette, but I gotta get back before he finds me missing!" I was so glad for an excuse to end it so I could head over, but still super disappointed to go, ESPECIALLY for another avian-related 'crisis'.

"You've been great- I MEAN it's been great, like the game and you but not like YOU, you were like okay NOT THAT YOU WERE BAD but like yeah bye Adrien!" I spat out in a hot-faced blur. Why do I always do that??

"See you at school, Marinette!" he beamed before rushing out the door.

* * *

I can't stop thinking about that match, diary. Tikki thinks I'm thinking way too deeply into it. Maybe she's right. Just, wouldn't it be great if... but anyway! The game is awesome, needs a few tweaks but I'll leave them in here in case Max loses the notes I wrote up for him. I'm so psyched for him, and for hopefully a better relationship between us!

And who knows, maybe one with Adrien!

Until next time,

Marinette Dupain-Cheng

 

 


End file.
